Taika Waititi Says Audiences Can Watch THOR: RAGNAROK Without Watching The First Two Films

In case it wasn't evident from our past coverage, Thor: Ragnarok is striving to be a different kind of Thor film. The film is so different, in fact, that director Taika Waititi believes audiences can watch the film without having seen the first two films. Waititi explains in the quote below (via Slashfilm): 

"The main challenge was actually working at getting away from the other two films. Yes, the other films are there, it’s great to watch them. I think they’re good films, but I don’t mind if people start with this film. For me, this is my Thor 1. I’ve seen the other films and I respect them a lot, but I can’t spend too much time thinking about this as a threequel. Because then I get tied up too much in respecting what went before and respecting what’s gonna come after. For me, it has to be a standalone thing. This could be the only time I do this, so I just want to make a Marvel film in the best way possible."

As you can see from his words, that isn't a slight towards the first films, but a testament to how much character development goes into Thor's character in this film. That's something I definitely can appreciate as I feel Thor is about the most vanilla of the Marvel characters we've seen in the MCU, and I don't mind him showing a little more character now that he's spent time on Earth and less time on Asgard. 

Does Waititi suggesting fans can skip out on prior works ruffle your feathers at all? Are you comfortable with the franchise continuing with this less rigid interpretation of Thor if Ragnarok does well at the box office?